Rejuvenated Nicholls Helps Defeat Ducks : Hockey: Blackhawk veteran scores a goal and gets an assist as Chicago defeats the team he wanted to join in 1993, 5-2.

Bernie Nicholls wanted to be a Duck.

He might be the only NHL player who has ever actively campaigned to be one, and he’s certainly the only former 70-goal scorer who has done so.

During training camp in 1993, when his infant son lay critically ill in a Long Beach hospital, Nicholls asked to be traded from New Jersey to Anaheim so he could be closer to tiny Jack, who was struggling against severe birth defects and illness and died that November. The Ducks expressed concern for Nicholls and his family, but the team frankly wasn’t interested in him as a player.

“I understood,” said Nicholls, the onetime King who plays for Chicago now and scored his 21st goal of the season Sunday as the Blackhawks beat the Ducks, 5-2, in front of 21,351 at the United Center. Only Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr has more goals, with 23.

“It was tough because Anaheim would have been looking for younger players because they were just starting out,” Nicholls said. “And New Jersey wasn’t going to give me away for nothing. Things just didn’t work out.”

The Ducks weren’t the only team who thought Nicholls’ better days were behind him, but he has been reborn with Chicago. At 33, he has 41 points in 30 games after recording a goal and an assist against the Ducks.

Granted, Nicholls might not have performed so well in Anaheim, where he would not have been surrounded by Jeremy Roenick and Chris Chelios. He also became a free agent after last season. And even if Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira had tried to make a deal, he might not have had any players the Devils wanted, and he wouldn’t have parted with a high draft pick. With only 33 goals in his previous two seasons with three different teams, Nicholls didn’t look as if he was worth it.

Now he plays for Chicago, the Stanley Cup contender that fell behind, 1-0, Sunday when Joe Sacco scored the first of his two goals at 8:44 of the first period, beating Ed Belfour high. Sacco has three goals in the last two games after going scoreless for 11 games after returning from a broken thumb.

But the Blackhawks scored the next five goals, taking a 5-1 lead after a three-goal second period. Rookie Sergei Krivokrasov scored his ninth and 10th goals of the season, and Joe Murphy and Cam Russell scored fluke goals.

Duck Coach Ron Wilson was angered when referee Paul Stewart didn’t order a video review of a goal at 7:50 of the second after the puck appeared to go into the net off the skate of Murphy, who had camped out in the crease before the puck got there.

“Some weird things happened,” Wilson said. “No way that should have been a goal. One, he was in the crease, and two, he kicks it in.”

The strangest goal of the day, though, belonged to Russell, only his fourth in 205 career NHL games. Russell took a point shot, which the Ducks’ Stu Grimson partially deflected, and it made its way into the net with the trajectory of a bloop single, finally falling in behind goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov at 15:40 of the second.

“Stu Grimson was going, ‘No! No! No!’ and I was going, ‘Yes! Yes!’ ” Russell said. “I’ve scored four goals and three of them have made the highlight films. . . . Usually when I score it’s embarrassing more than anything.”

The Blackhawks are playing so well that such things happen. Nicholls is being credited with a huge part of the team’s success, particularly with helping them enjoy the game more.

“You can’t be wound up too tight,” Nicholls said. “There were times (the last two years) when I wasn’t as relaxed as I would have liked to have been. If you’re mentally not prepared, no matter how good your physical shape is, you’re not going to play too well.

“The last couple of years, I obviously wasn’t always thinking about hockey.”

Duck Notes

Rookie Paul Kariya required several stitches after being cut on the upper lip by a Blackhawk’s stick in the third period, but returned. . . . Guy Hebert started in goal but was pulled for Mikhail Shtalenkov at 7:50 of the second after the Blackhawks’ fourth goal. . . . Veteran defenseman Tom Kurvers was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive game and the fifth time this season. If any team expresses interest in him before the April 7 trading deadline, it wouldn’t be a longshot for him to go to his eighth NHL team. . . . Kariya’s eight-game point streak was broken, as was Bobby Dollas’ seven-game streak . . . Center Patrik Carnback missed the game because of a groin strain and was replaced by Tim Sweeney, who had been a healthy scratch the last six games even though he was the team’s fourth-leading scorer last season.